"We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours."

John of Salisbury (1115~1180)

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

School system gets messier

All the talk about revamps and revitalising our education system is, yes, all talk. It looks like the ministry is run by incompetent persons with grand titles and greater delusions of grandeur. Meanwhile, taxpayer's funds and a lot of time are wasted. I am sorry for the teachers and the ridiculous load they have to shoulder. And our children? They deserve better, certainly. If you can, get your kids out of the system.

Last year it was called Sistem Pentaksiran Pendidikan Kebangsaan
(SPPK). My school was one of the pioneers of the project. The Ministry of
Education thought that exam oriented approach to teaching was not fair to all
the students. The argument was that six years of primary education should not
be concluded in 50 minutes of multiple choice questions. The intention was
good. It still is.

Now with Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR) comes Pentaksiran
Berasaskan Sekolah. You may have heard of it. The Minister of Education refers
to this as PBS and it was meant to ensure that no pupil will be left behind due
to unfortunate circumstances. It being school based means that the teacher
knows best when to assess the pupil.

This school based assessment is a yearly assessment and it contributes
40 percent towards the UPSR final grade. At the beginning of the year we were
told that only five subjects were involved namely Bahasa, English, Mathematics,
Science and Physical, Sports, Cocurriculum Activity Education.

The school was to prepare files
aplenty. The most notable one would be the 'Showcase' file in which we store
the pupil's best piece of work throughout 6 years as evidence. It sounded O.K.
But that was the beginning of the year.

And so we opened all the necessary files. The bigger the school population, the
more files needed. Each of the teacher in charge of assessment was provided
with a Performance Standard Document as a guideline. It was published by the
Malaysian Examination Syndicate. Bear in mind that this was last year's edition
- the one used by the pioneer schools.

One thing that was wrong with it was that the documents for mathematics and
science were still written in English. This raised questions but the teachers
being jacks of all trade did not complain at this point. Where there is a will
there is a way. School based assessment was up and running by late January.

In April, we were told to halt the school based assessment pending for the
arrival of new Performance Standard Documents by the Malaysian Examination
Syndicate. All assessments done up until this point was deemed invalid. School
based assessment was put to a halt at this point.

In May, we were informed that the school based assessment now involves every
subject in KSSR including Information and Communication Technology Element
which is not even a subject taught by any specific teacher. Even the newly
minted Bahasa Arab for KSSR was not spared.

Each subject has its own Performance Standard Document. So we bought thicker
files and put dividers for each subject. It got a little frustrating at this
point. We needed to redo the in-house training for the additional subjects. By
the way, even until now nobody mentioned that UPSR 2016 will involve every KSSR
subject.

The sample worksheets (instrument for assessment) per se is ridiculous. For
example Band 1 assessment for Bahasa is fairly fundamental knowledge such as
mimicking sounds, naming them, reading word segments, and tracing alphabets.

But when you look at the Bands
1 and 2 assessment for Moral Education it's like a mini literature. It assumed
Year 1 pupils read fluently and write smoothly. Even Year 4 pupils could not do
Year 1's Band 2 Moral Education worksheet.

In June, the Examination Syndicate uploaded an online application called Sistem
Pengurusan Pentaksiran Berasaskan Sekolah (SPPBS) to do what it was supposed to
do hence the name.

The school secretary of
examinations was given the task to create user accounts for every local
assessor. We attended the in-house training which was done by our secretary
himself. School based assessment was up and running again by end of June.

Surprise, surprise. The Examination Syndicate's circular regarding the
compulsory implementation of school based assessment only came out on July 5.
Every school has a copy but for unknown reasons you will not find this circular
online.

I've searched the official
website and I've Googled for traces of it elsewhere. I suspect it is due to the
delay of the letter (supposed to have been distributed in January) and that
certain quarters might dispute the validity of assessments done prior to its
release.

The most ridiculous part was this. I was about the record the qualifiers for
Bands 2 and 3 for the subjects that I assessed on Friday, September 3. What I saw
was truly horrifying. The entire database was erased by the system
administrator! We were prompted to get our new passwords from the State
Education Department.

And upon navigation no news of passwords whatsoever can be found. This is
September for crying out loud - less than two months before the end of the
school calendar. Do you mean that we need to go back to square one? We have
many other errands to run in school, you know.

The director of the Malaysian Examination Syndicate, Sufaat bin Tumin has a lot
of explaining to do. Perhaps it is wise to stick with the original plan and put
on hold any improvisations.

Murphy's Law states that if something can go wrong, it will. This whole episode
will repeat itself next year, don't you agree, Mr Director?